Like Apprenticeship Programs or Artistic Pursuits: Minor League Baseball reporting 2017

Seems like an overreaction to a pretty obvious development... teams know a lot more now about how fragile pitchers' arms are while their bodies are still growing. I would rather have more starting pitchers making it to the majors in one piece and then throwing deeper into games instead of everyone constantly getting TJs all the time

Not of general interest, but: I've posted before about Darren Shred, I guy I coached in middle school who was drafted by the Reds. That didn't work out, then he was playing for Barrie in the Intercounty League, then the pandemic happened...so I checked around, and it looks like he's moved on to something pretty good:

https://www.objbaseball.com/news/shred-jumps-into-new-role-with-obj

Actually, that happened just before the pandemic; hope he managed to hold on to this.

Very cool.

Single A Lakeland beat Clearwater yesterday, 10-5 -- on three hits. Correct: 10 runs on three hits. In what might or might not be a shocking revelation, Clearwater walked 16 Flying Tigers batters. Repeat: 16 walks. Clearwater's pitching coach remains under observation ...

— Lynn G. Henning (@Lynn_Henning) September 4, 2021

BREAKING: Major League Baseball teams will provide housing for minor league baseball players starting in 2022, sources tell ESPN.

Details on the monumental change @espn: https://t.co/Wzw2pWU55i

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 17, 2021

how about that

thumbs up

getting out in front of the CBA? or are the minors excluded from that?

this should go well ($)

Sports and entertainment agency Endeavor, and its private equity investor Silver Lake, is in talks to buy up to a dozen minor league teams, with aspirations of potentially owning 40 or more of Minor League Baseball’s 120 teams over time, sources said. Endeavor is already a force in sports, in part through ownership of UFC, talent agency WME, and a host of marketing, licensing, and agent divisions. The pursuit of so many teams doesn’t amount to a fait accompli, but Endeavor is making attractive offers.

Endeavor declined to comment, as did Major League Baseball, which has to approve any minor league ownership transfer.

The potential sales could bring concerns for both minor league owners and municipalities, and may also create an issue for the Major League Baseball Players Association to address, as Endeavor also represents baseball players. If successful, Endeavor’s purchases would be the most significant financial development since MLB restructured MiLB this year, reducing the number of teams by 40 — or 25 percent — and centralizing MLB control.

One little-noticed change in the overhaul greased the path for Endeavor: The elimination of the prohibition on an entity owning more than one team per league.

wtf

baseball never met a cartel it didn’t like

This sounds like a complete cluster fuck of conflicts of interest

what they should do is integrate betting to the whole operation

Sources: Rachel Balkovec, who joined the Yankees organization as a minor-league hitting coach in 2019, will serve as the manager for the Low A Tampa Tarpons next season.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) January 9, 2022

I misread that as the Tampa Tampons and then laughed and then immediately felt horrible about myself

The @FLProBaseball has announced it will use "sudden death baseball" to settle tie games. After one extra inning if game remains tied, the home team chooses to hit or pitch. The hitting team puts a runner on 1st. 3 outs. Run scores? Hitting team wins. No runs? Pitching team wins.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 24, 2022

run scores in that situation only about 43% of the time, so

dumb as hell imo

honestly i don't think i care

i don't care either, i just find it amusing to see a pro sport admit that game outcomes don't matter as much as simply ending

clearly minor leaguers should skip spring training, sparing their clubs this horrible financial burden, and just show up for regular-season games. everybody’s happy!

MLB argues for minor leaguers to stay unpaid in spring training: "It is the players that obtain the greater benefit from the training opportunities that they are afforded than the clubs, who actually just incur the cost of having to provide that training” https://t.co/md2BqNjr0X

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 12, 2022

wow.

i'm glad people are presumably going to get paid, but i really wish some lawsuit would force these pro leagues to open their books

Minor league players, MLB reach settlement in minimum wage lawsuit

NEW YORK -- Minor league players and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging teams violated minimum wage laws.

Terms of the settlement were not filed with the court Tuesday and details were not released. Two people familiar with the negotiations, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the release of details was not authorized, said the sides in recent weeks had been discussing a possible settlement in the $200 million range.

all very healthy behavior

springfield’s chandler redmond hit a solo homer, two-run homer, three-run homer and grand slam tonight

second time that’s ever been done in pro baseball (that anyone knows of, at least); the other was tyrone horne for arkansas (then also a cardinals double-a team) in 1998

that's weird; last night, just before you posted that, i was perusing the stats of Springfield's team. Mainly checking in on Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Malcom Nuñez, who have 61 years of life experience between the three of them, and also Moisés Gómez, who is a relatively ancient 23 year old with 23 home runs and a 1.106 OPS. didn't even see Chandler Raymond! he's 25. i'll probably never see him in a big league uniform but it's warming to see someone have an insane, career accomplishment kind of night

(shit, i forgot nunez was just traded to the bucs)

The Major League Baseball Players Association has launched a campaign to unionize Minor League Players across the country #1u #FairBall pic.twitter.com/DDq4Q8NOXI

— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) August 29, 2022

possibly a big deal?

also it is amusing that milb.com, the official website of minor league baseball, doesn't mention this in any way

and, the campaign is pretty much done? they got >50% to sign the union cards

And just like that, minor league baseball players are on the verge of unionizing.

More than 50 percent of minor leaguers signed authorization cards in support of unionization under the guidance of the Major League Baseball Players Association, the organization announced Tuesday. As such, the players union has asked MLB to voluntarily recognize it as the representative for minor league players. The league had yet to comment as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement came just one week after the union made the surprising move to send out the cards to gauge interest, a move made to seize the momentum created by two-plus years of advocacy that pushed the low pay and challenging working conditions of the minors into a brighter spotlight than ever before. That minor leaguers would unionize never seemed imminent. That the MLBPA would serve as the organizing force behind their unionization was never obvious.

But as of Tuesday morning, their combined efforts had hurtled minor leaguers one step closer to unionization.

“Minor league Players have made it unmistakably clear they want the MLBPA to represent them and are ready to begin collective bargaining in order to positively affect the upcoming season,” Tony Clark, executive director of the players union, said in a statement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/06/minor-league-unionization-mlbpa-authorization-cards/

thumbs up

That's an F7 on your scorecard, but a home run in Delvin Pérez's heart 🤣 pic.twitter.com/05EIE3gH1R

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 23, 2022

In 2002, 186 MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. This year, five MiLB pitchers threw 150+ innings. We want to honor great pitching seasons (and Painter's is a great season). So that has led to the BA MiLB Pitcher of the Year award.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) September 29, 2022

When we said “World’s Largest Horseshoe,” we really meant it. pic.twitter.com/FfgZGCdKmZ

— Springfield Lucky Horseshoes (@ShoesBaseball) October 16, 2022

there once was a minor league team called the Fargo Divorcees

it was way back when. also, i just learned that Fargo used to be well known as a particularly easy and quick place to get a divorce

nice

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35998626/minor-leaguers-mlb-reach-tentative-deal-historic-1st-cba

4-HR game for Eduardo De Oleo of the Intercounty League's London Majors:

https://lfpress.com/sports/local-sports/london-majors-slugger-rips-four-home-runs-in-one-game#:~:text=De%20Oleo's%20historic%20four%2Dhomer,London%20Free%20Press

Not an important league anymore, but many major leaguers have passed through there, including Fergie Jenkins and Denny McClain.

https://www.theibl.ca/mlb-alumni

(Actually, come to think of it, some of these guys, including Fergie, played there after retirement.)_

on how loaded triple-a teams might fare in the majors (spoiler: not well)

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/terrible-mlb-teams-are-pretty-good-at-baseball